Public Citizen's Health Research Group: Questionable Doctors: Pennsylvania

PENNSYLVANIA

1999 serious action rate: 2.55/1000 doctors
1999 ranking: 36th

In Pennsylvania, there were disciplinary actions reported against 848 doctors including 16 who were disciplined for substance abuse, 19 for misprescribing or overprescribing drugs, 6 for sexual abuse of or sexual misconduct with a patient, 14 for substandard care, incompetence or negligence and 149 who were convicted of a crime.

This web site provides aggregate national and state data on doctor discipline. Names of those doctors and their offenses are NOT included on the site. Web sites with such information need to be frequently updated and we cannot do this because of limited staff and resources available to continually monitor the information that we receive from the 51 MD and 14 DO licensing boards and the federal government. This website does provide direct links to the web sites of those boards that have information available on the internet.

Detailed information on specific doctors who have been disciplined is included in the book which can be purchased in regional editions for $20. The book includes disciplinary actions taken against doctors from 1990 through December 1999.

The Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine sent newsletters and listings of actions from 1990 through 1999. The newsletters include the physician's name, degree, license number, city and state of residence, the date and type of action taken, the results of any appeals or requests for reconsideration, and usually a synopsis of the reason for the action. The listings include the physician's name, degree, license number, date of birth, address, the date and type of action taken and the reason for the action. In addition, material sent contains some information on modifications and terminations of board actions but not on court decisions affecting board actions. Pennsylvania stated that court decisions would be included in the information we received. The earlier newsletters and a computer printout do not list residence information, license numbers or the reason for the action. The Pennsylvania Board also sent some board orders for 1991 which had further information on type of action and the reason for the action.

A large number of actions in Pennsylvania included short suspensions ranging from three days to a few weeks for physicians who did not pay an insurance tax called their Medical Professional Liability Catastrophic Loss Fund. Although these actions appear to be administrative and may have no relation to the physician's ability to practice, in accordance with the protocol, they are included in the state listing since Pennsylvania treats them as disciplinary actions.

The Pennsylvania State Board of Osteopathic Medicine sent board orders of actions from 1990 through 1999. These include the physician's name, degree, license number, address, the date and type of action taken and the reason for the action. They contain no information on modifications or terminations of board actions nor on court decisions affecting board actions. Pennsylvania informed us no such actions had taken place.

The information provided covers disciplinary actions taken against allopathic physicians (MDs) and osteopathic physicians (DOs).

Besides disciplinary actions taken by the State Medical Boards, this listing also includes actions taken by the Medicare/Medicaid programs, the FDA, and the DEA against physicians located in this state. Disciplinary actions taken by other states against physicians located in Pennsylvania or that match a physician disciplined by Pennsylvania are also included.

Board Internet Address: http://www.dos.state.pa.us/bpoa/disciplinaryactions.html

This state has a web site which we have graded D on a scale of A (best) to X (worst) as part of our February 2000 Survey of Doctor Disciplinary Information on State Medical Board Web Sites. This grade is a measure of the completeness of the information on disciplined doctors. Those state licensing boards with web sites make independent choices about the type of information to be included on their site and how often it is updated.

According to the Federation of State Medical Boards, Pennsylvania took 97 serious disciplinary actions against MDs and DOs in 1999. Compared to the 38,080 MDs licensed in the state, Pennsylvania had a serious disciplinary action rate of 2.55 serious actions per 1,000 MDs and it ranked 36th on that list of states (see Table A).

The tables below summarize the data Public Citizen received from Pennsylvania.

Table 1. Disciplinary Actions Against MDs and DOs 1990 through 1999*
Action	Number	Percent**
Revocation	102	8.3%
Surrender	93	7.6%
Suspension	360	29.3%
Probation	204	16.6%
Practice Restriction	17	1.4%
Action Taken Against Controlled Substance License	4	0.3%
Other Actions	450	36.6%
Total Actions	1230	100.0%

* This table lists only the two most serious disciplinary actions taken against a physician.
** Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

Table 2. Offenses for which MDs and DOs were Disciplined 1990 through 1999*
Offense	Number	Percent
Criminal Conviction	158	17.9%
Sexual Abuse of or Sexual Misconduct with a Patient	6	0.7%
Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence	14	1.6%
Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs	19	2.2%
Substance Abuse	20	2.3%
Disciplinary Action Taken Against License by Another State or Agency	375	42.5%
Other Offenses	291	33.0%
Total Records With Offense Listed	883	100.0%

* Includes only those actions for which an offense was listed and for which we had a corresponding term in our database.

Table 3. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence
Action	Number	Percent
Surrender	2	8.0%
Suspension	2	8.0%
Probation	6	24.0%
Practice Restriction	1	4.0%
Fine	9	36.0%
Reprimand	4	16.0%
Other Actions	1	4.0%
Total Actions	25	100.0%

Table 4. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Criminal Conviction
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	13	6.5%
Surrender	3	1.5%
Suspension	94	47.00%
Emergency Suspension	1	0.5%
Probation	46	23.0%
Fine	23	11.5%
Other Actions	20	10.0%
Total Actions	200	100.0%

Table 5. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	4	15.4%
Surrender	3	11.5%
Suspension	4	15.4%
Probation	3	11.5%
Restriction on Controlled Substance License	1	3.8%
Fine	7	26.9%
Education	1	3.8%
Other Actions	3	11.5%
Total Actions	26	100.0%

Table 6. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substance Abuse
Action	Number	Percent
Suspension	8	29.6%
Emergency Suspension	2	7.4%
Probation	12	44.4%
Fine	1	3.7%
Required to Enter an Impaired Physician Program or Substance Abuse Treatment	1	3.7%
Other Actions	3	11.1%
Total Actions	27	100.0%

If you feel that your doctor has not given you proper medical care or has mistreated you in any way--whether or not he or she is listed in this report--it is important that you let your state medical board know. Even if they do not immediately act on your complaint, it is important that the information be recorded in their files because it is possible that other people may have filed or will file complaints about the same doctor. Send a brief written description of what occurred to the addresses below or call the phone numbers listed for more information on how to file a complaint.

Addresses
Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine
Cindy L. Warner, Administrator
PO Box 2649
Harrisburg, PA 17105-2649
(717) 783-1400
Fax: (717) 787-7769
E-mail: medicine@pados.dos.state.pa.us

Internet Address: http://www.dos.state.pa.us/bpoa/disciplinaryactions.html

Pennsylvania State Board of Osteopathic Medicine
Gina Bittner, Administrator
PO Box 2649
Harrisburg, PA 17105-2649
(717) 783-4858
Fax: (717) 787-7769
E-mail: osteopat@pados.dos.state.pa.us